The verbal fight between Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir took the limelight away from the games of IPL 2023 which took place after the Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore match at the Ekana Stadium. Videos of the infamous altercation went viral on social media with the players extending this with their reactions on Instagram and BCCI played the part by handing hefty fines to whoever was involved as well. But former India player Sunil Gavaskar questioned if fines were enough to guarantee such a thing will never happen in the future as well.
However, BCCI on Tuesday charged Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir their entire match fees as a penalty for breaching the IPL Code of Conduct. However Gavaskar, in conversation with Star Sports, asked for stricter punishment to ensure that such fights do not happen in the future.
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“Well, I saw the visuals only a while ago, I did not see the match live yesterday. These things never look good. What is a 100 per cent match fee? What exactly is a 100 per cent match fee? If it is Kohli, who is on maybe ₹17 crore for RCB, which means ₹17 crore for a possible 16 matches, including the semi-finals, and finals. So you are talking about a crore of rupees. Is he going to be fined ₹1 crore and more? Well, that’s a very, very stiff fine,” Gavaskar said.
“I don’t know what Gambhir’s situation is. They should ensure that this is not repeated. You are hoping that this is not repeated because it’s such a stiff fine, such a stiff punishment. You want to play it hard, play it competitively. During the time that we played, there was a bit of banter, but there was none of this aggression that we see now. A lot of it has got to do with the fact that everything is on TV too. Because of the fact that you are on TV, you tend to do maybe just that little bit extra,” he added.
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“So, my point, do something which will make sure, these things don’t happen again. If it has to you know, like it happened with Harbhajan and Sreesanth 10 years ago, that you have to ask them to maybe step aside for a couple of matches. Make sure you do something that ensures that these things don’t happen and also something that will hurt the team. That’s a stiff one,” Sunil Gavaskar concluded.
